Sometimes a book comes along at just the right moment in life. This was the case with Dear Mrs Bird, a spirited wartime romp that I read back in cold, wet November when my spirits needed A Jolly Good Talking To (as Mrs Bird herself would advise).

Set in 1940s London and with the Luftwaffe making nightly raids overhead, Emmeline (Emmy) Lake dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent. So when she seeks a job advertised at an impressive newspaper, she promptly quits her existing job and applies. Only it turns out the job isn't for the newspaper at all but as secretary to the fearsome Henrietta Bird, acting editoress and redoubtable agony aunt at failing women's magazine Woman's Friend.

Mrs Bird's requirements are very clear: letters containing any form of Unpleasantness must go straight in the bin. And Mrs Bird's list of Unpleasantness is very long indeed. As Emmy finds herself dismissing letters from love-lorn, grief-stricken and morally confused readers in favour of those asking for a good rationing recipe or help with unsightly ankles, she decides the only thing to do is to write back to the conflicted readers herself.

Make no mistake, this book is a romp through and through. To start with, I even wondered if it was a pastiche because there's just so much sugar in Emmy - she's the epitome of the Blitz spirit and, as a result, her narrative voice is very Famous Five jolly hockey sticks and lashings of ginger beer. Stick with it though because, behind all the mustn't grumble stiff-upper lip is an irresistibly funny and very moving novel about friendship, growing pains and the importance of being kind.

I loved Emmy as a character - she's spirited and funny and a little bit daft. There's also an eclectic supporting cast from Emmy's sarcastic boss to her sensible best friend Bunty - and not forgetting the formidable Mrs Bird herself of course, who never speaks when she can shout and never shouts when she can bellow.

Underneath all the high-jinks though, there's a real sense of daily life in wartime London, both from Emmy's own experiences and the letters of the readers she responds to. As the book progresses, Emmy begins to realise that you can't always rely on Keeping Your Chin Up and Carrying On Regardless. There's some particularly evocative descriptions of the blitz that, for me, are only rivaled by those I read in Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. And there's definitely sections of the book that made me cry just as much as other parts made me laugh out loud - the deft lightness of touch that allows the story to work on so many levels is a real compliment to the author, especiallt as

Overall though, this is a heart-warming and spirited read that would be perfect for anyone who enjoyed Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets. Yes, at times it's so quirky that it verges on the twee but some books you read for pure pleasure and this is most definitely one of them. Heart-warming and irresistible, this is a warm hug of a book that's perfect for cheering dull spirits and brightening a wet, cold afternoon.

Thanks to the publishers for the chance to read and review this book.
Here we have Emmy and Bunty, young ladies in London in the early days of WWII, one works for the Government and the other has aspirations to be a war correspondent. The former gets a job with what she believes to be a national newspaper, but she is working in reality for a ladies Magazine and for a very, very prim 'Agony' Aunt' who refuses to answer any letters that contain any 'unpleasantness'. The 'unpleasantness's cover a multitude of sins so not a lot gets answered in the magazine or by letter. Our heroine decides to , unbeknown to her employer, answer a few of the more risque ones herself. That is when the fun begins!
We learn about the girls romances, other jobs supporting the war effort and what life was like during the 'Blitz.'
An entertaining, amusing read that hopefully will become a series.
Highly recommended.

Lovely, well written story capturing the lives of people during the dark days of the London bombings during WW2. Our main character cannot help herself from being very fresh and idealistic and only wants to help people. This leads to her stepping beyond the boundaries of her job and forging answers to letters asking for advice sent to her boss. Her work for the Fire Station highlighted the bravery of all those who stayed behind and tried to cope with nightly bombings of their homes. The character is warm hearted and whilst we know she will get caught out, we do hope that things will work out...

What a fantastic book to start my 2018 reading year with! Dear Mrs Bird was an extremely enjoyable and utterly moving historical read which I can't wait to recommend to fellow readers!

Simply written with an engrossing voice the story flows quickly. I read the book in a matter of hours and looked forward to each time I could sit down and read it. With a fantastic array of characters and beautiful historical details, it is a must-read for 2018. Simply lovely.

A refreshingly upbeat read - I loved the style, this was a wonderful debut and a fresh take on an era I am very familiar with.

A gorgeous story of hope, happiness, love and loss.

I am currently watching my grandmother, aged 94, sink into the long sleep of death, as her body and mind shrink away from each day and she disappears, memory by memory. During WW2 she volunteered with the WAAF, experienced the Blitz, fell in love, married and then lost her husband within months, leaving her pregnant and devastated. In the light of my current situation, this story, which focuses on women the same age as she was and who are living through the same experiences as she did, is even more beautiful and poignant.

The author uses a very clever device, the agony aunt letters, to show us a side of wartime life rarely considered or acknowledged. The women of Britain, who stayed at home and were expected to keep smiling while facing all sorts of challenges and deprivations deserve recognition and through the letters our heroine receives, we can at least - and at last - understand some of what they were faced with, wholly new challenges nobody could have dreamed of and so had absolutely no pattern book of responses to.

The story is so cleverly written, you can almost hear the voices of each character and draw your own mental picture of each. Every one is someone you'd love to get to know - even the redoubtable Mrs Bird. It's light and entertaining and then, suddenly, it's terribly sad, almost heartbreaking. Our heroine battles on however, showing us the stiff upper lip that, really, won us the war.

My only (very minor) negative point would be that the ending seems rather hurried, a little rushed - as if the author had reached her allowed word count and needed to stop! It's a happy ending though, so 'can't complain' as my nanna always said.

I truly loved this book. I read it in two big sittings. It maed me laugh and cry and feel all warm inside. I loved Emmy and Bunty and the qurky Mr. Collins.

This is a very chatty novel about a girl called Emmeline, and her friend Bunty, during World War 2. Emmie wants to be a war reporter, but ends up with a job on a magazine called Women's Friend, and Bunty has a job typing in the War Office.
The magazine editor is a very fierce woman called Mrs Bird, who refuses to answer anything she deems unsuitable, which means the problem pages are very boring, and anodyne. Emmie eventually gets upset for some of the letter-writers and answers a letter herself, but signs it from Mrs Bird.
This is "chatty" novel, with lots of detail about firefighting, and rescue during bombing raids, as well as the problems caused by relationships and the privations of rationing.
At times it is "laugh out loud" and others, very poignant especially when Bunty's fiance is killed the night before their wedding.The characterisation is good, the plot plausible and the ending is just perfect. A pleasure to read, and many thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read it.

Think agony aunt with a twist in London during the blitz. A very well researched and written story.

To take a break from all the horror, murder and suspense I have been reading lately, I decided to take a gamble on Dear Mrs Bird. While this may have looked like the kind of book I would usually overlook, a lot of publishing professionals who I look up to had given it rave reviews, so I decided to try it out.

The plot of this novel is that Emmeline Lake, in amidst the war gets a job typing up letters and responses on the advice page for an out-of-date women’s magazine. The woman providing the responses is Mrs Bird, who’s list of unacceptable topics and words in a letter that she will reply to, which makes Emmy’s job quite frustrating at times, so she starts responding to letters herself. Pearce explores themes of friendship, family and innocence through the hard-hitting experience of the war. It is often humorous and the characters very relatable, while breaking your heart in places.

My only complaint about this book is that there isn’t more of it. I want to know what’s going to happen next! I relate so well to the main character, Emmy, as she is trying to make the most of an unfulfilling job that she thought would be her ticket to her dream career. I seriously admire her commitment to her own life and pursuing her goals. She cares greatly for her friends throughout the book and stands by them, even when pushed aside. I relate to her fiercely protective nature and her ruthless pursuit of her dreams.

I thought the writing was brilliant; I enjoyed the author’s knowledge of the war, and the fact that the story is in London, in the middle of the war. This meant that, while the main focus was on Emmy’s story, there were regular reminders of what was happening and how it was affecting them as well. I enjoyed the consideration that people’s lives still went on during the war until they couldn’t anymore.

The male characters in the novel were given the “smaller parts”, which I liked. Even during the war, when men were always the focus, women still existed, and I enjoyed how Pearce gave them a voice front and centre. The subversion of these roles reminded me just how little emphasis was put on women’s voices at the time, and made me proud of Emmy and the way she stood up for herself and her actions.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend to regular readers of women’s fiction, and anyone who needs a break from anything too dark and disturbing. I was provided with an ARC from NetGalley and Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Mrs Bird is an amusing and undemanding light read. The Blitz Spirit is strong throughout, and we have a feisty heroine finding, as did many women at the time, that the war is a liberating experience. We have romance, a bit of heartache, a lot of heartwarming and a considerable dose of cliche'.

Emmy Lake, our heroine, lives with her oldest best friend Bunty in Bunty's grandmother's London flat. She dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent and duly applies for and gets a job at the what she thinks is a leading newspaper. However, it turns out that the post is for a junior typing up letters for Mrs Henrietta Bird, the agony aunt and Deputy Editor of Woman's Friend, the flagging women's magazine owned by the same company. Mrs Bird has very strict ideas on the sort of problems that are and are not admissible, and her advice to the correspondents worthy of a response is unfailingly to buck up and get on with it. It's not long before Emmy is irresistibly tempted to start surreptitiously answering the less acceptable letters herself, offering rather more sympathetic advice than Mrs Bird's... Meanwhile the Blitz is in full spate and Emmy's other job volunteering at a fire station responding to the air raids lends a rather more sombre touch to the story, especially when tragic events touch her own life.

I will admit to having read this book in two days - it is an easy read and, in spite of the potential for tragedy inherent in the setting, it is determinedly feelgood in tone. However, the tone is what I had a bit of a problem with - the characters and their speech are a complete stereotype of the Blitz spirit, to the extend of almost being an unintentional parody. There is no depth to the characters, and I found the plot predictable and the writing unchallenging in the extreme. It's squarely chick lit, an enjoyable bit of fluff that's perfect for an evening by the fire of a beach read but won't change your life or stretch your literary boundaries in any way. Which of course is not necessarily a bad thing.

This is a really sweet book, one you could pick up when you are feeling a bit low and know that (despite its depiction of the war) it will put a smile on your face and joy in your heart.

I found the first part of the book a little cloying, some of the writing a little laboured and explanations of what I had just read to make sure that the point was really driven home were glaringly obvious. However, as the book progressed and the author got into his stride the writing style felt more confident and natural.

Emmy is a character with a heart of gold, and her intentions are always good and honourable. I felt myself rooting for her when she endured hard times and cheering when things turned out well for her.

It's no surprise that there is a happy ending, and I did finish reading with a smile on my face.

Thanks to the publishers and net galley for the arc in return for an honest review.

Dear Mrs Bird is a wonderful, charming book, set during the Second World War, we meet Emmeline who dreams of being a journalist but is stuck working at a solicitor's, whilst also doing shifts at local fire station.

Her dream job is advertised in a local paper, and after a less than stellar interview she is offered a job typing for the inimitable Mrs Bird,

The characters are fabulous, the writing superb, it will make you laugh and cry, every aspect of the war is covered, but always sympathetically and with heart.

One very small criticism, it ended too quickly, but perhaps I am just being greedy........

Highly recommended

Thanks you to Pan Macmillan Picador and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book to read and offer an unbiased review.
The book is in turn refreshing, amusing, sad, poignant and wonderful. The author's skill is evident from the first page and more than once i was reminded of Stella Gibbons. It's a pity it won't be out by Christmas it would make a great stocking filler and one that will bring enjoyment to many in the chill of winter. A five star flyer if ever there was one. You will gather I really enjoyed it I can't wait for the hard print copy. A very minor criticism is the cover does not do justice to the content.

Quite well written, and engaging enough, but just not my sort of book. A young girl in WW2 with aspirations to become a war journalist joins a woman Magazine as a Junior, and begins writing to its readers, answering the letters that her boss won't. It's quite predictable, and a bit twee. Not for me

I loved this book! Idea was good for the setting of the book. WW2 was a time when women were taking on more responsibility and social mores were changing. It also casts light on how morals shift and how society starts to become more liberal. This combines with the ambitions of a young girl who wants to write and is trying to push boundaries and change things; in some ways a feisty character of her time. The book reminded me very much of the Chilbury Ladies Choir which I loved and also the Guernsey Potatoe Peel Pie Society. Really good read overall, very believable characters and great setting.

Fun read with an enjoyable ending.
This book just didn't grab me as I felt it was a bit too light and trying too hard. In places it was amusing but in others it was just too unlikely to ever happen or have happened.
I was given this book by NetGalley and the publisher. This is my voluntary review.

Took me a while to get into this book as I felt the characters were a bit wooden and the plot all too predictable but I persevered and quite enjoyed it in the end. At the height of the blitz, Em applies for a job in a newspaper mistakenly thinking she’ll be rubbing shoulders with war correspondents but ends up sorting letters addressed to a dull woman’s magazine’s agony aunt Mrs Bird. Unusual approach to the perils of wartime in London should be popular with fans of the genre. Thanks to netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

An Awfully Good book. It portrays the realities of Keeping Calm and Carrying On in an entertaining and thought provoking way. It made me laugh and cry. Jolly Well Done!

This is a first novel and the publishers seem to have high hopes for it. 1940 and our heroine Emmeline dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent. Instead, through a misunderstanding she takes a secretarial job with a failing women’s magazine. The formidable ‘Mrs Bird’ is the paper’s agony aunt but refuses to deal with any ‘unpleasantness’ i.e most of the problems readers write in with. Emmeline secretly and dangerously (for her job) begins answering some of the letters herself because she feels sorry for the writers. This was such a good idea and could have worked well but for me it doesn’t come off. There’s no real need for the story to be set in wartime; early 1950s would have done. It’s really two books: Emmeline and her ambition and Emmeline and the war. Judging by the breathless, schoolgirl style of her writing, she would never have made a war correspondent, so that aspect is rather silly.